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I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

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Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#311

Post by pedrosorio »

Trias11 wrote: post #294
cromka wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She could give up her citizenship then. Why make that decision now if she doesn’t have to?

It's extremely hard, expensive and take very long time to give up US citizenship. Reason? Lots of people are doing so. Plus you'd have to pay immediate capital gains on EVERYTHING accumulated so far - AS IF you sold it. Rules are brutal, irreversible, little known and expensive. Think twice. US citizenship could be very expensive mistake, unless person earns very average salary or sits on a welfare.

> It's extremely hard, expensive and take very long time to give up US citizenship. Reason? Lots of people are doing so.

Is that so?

"A record 6,705 Americans gave up their citizenship in 2020" [0]

"In fiscal year 2019, about 800,000 immigrants applied for naturalization" [1]

In a country where 800 thousand people apply for naturalization in a year, I would hardly call "the record" 6000 Americans giving up citizenship in a year (less than 1% of the ones acquiring it, and 0.002% of the population) "lots of people".

Also, I would bet the bureaucracy, difficulty and time required to immigrate and naturalize in the first place, far exceed those required when giving up citizenship.

[0] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-gave-up-c...

[0] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-finding...

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#312

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Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#313

Post by epa »

ab_testing wrote: post #301
bialpio wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL. Can non-citizens run US-based companies? If yes, can't this be done through a company, then OP would just be forbidden from drawing a salary from this entity?

Yes . Non citizens can run us based companies as long as they do that from outside the US. If they want to come to the US to run their US based company, then they have to decide on a visa. There is E2 which is a business based visa but only for certain countries. H1-B is essentially a skilled worker visa and it is assumed that you would have a company and a boss who would file for that visa.

Run your work through companies in Canada and Us. You are employee of Canadian consultantcy which happens to own stock and pay you on the payroll. Your quarterly meetings are nothing other than paper work.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#315

Post by dawsmik »

proberts wrote: post #249
safog wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to know more if you have pointers as well. I always assumed it was a no-go and released a few apps for free over the years.

We would need to talk but I evaluate this question - what can I do on the side - by looking at the extremes first to set the parameters. So, for example, ideating or building a product in your garage is clearly fine and getting paid cash for selling something that you created is clearly not. But in between these two extremes there are gray areas. So, for example, is creating something and posting it publicly problema…

If it is software, Could he just set a company in his home country that purchases server space in the US?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#316

Post by nsonha »

proberts wrote: post #19
brodouevencode wrote: post #11

Out of curiosity (and I apologize if this has been asked before) - why do you do these?

I work all the time in my private practice and really don't do much charitable work or work for the community so this is a small way of doing something. As a firm, we're also starting to do some pro bono asylum work but really not enough yet.

Is it required by the law that you do some percentage of pro bono?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#317

Post by proberts »

tt_dev wrote: post #282

Hi Peter! TYVM for your time. I've been in the US for about 4 years now and should acquire citizenship in the coming year or two - I'm a Greencard holder. My grandmother is around 70 years and she's the only one in my home country. I really want her to immigrate over here so I can take care of her but she's not my "immediate" family (not mom, dad, kids). Is there a route you'd recommend to help get her here and whats…

There is no direct path through you unfortunately and even your parent (her son/daughter) couldn't petition for her unless your parent was a US citizen. What's her country of citizenship and what's her educational and employment background?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#318

Post by proberts »

botverse wrote: post #278

Hi Peter! I work for an American company and we have a distributed team of developers around the world (India, UK, US) and we don’t know if it’s legal for us to come together for a week or two in the states, to plan, bond but also work? Thank you so much for your contributions.

Absolutely, it's done all the time. They would come here as business visitors with B-1 visas or with their passports if they are from a visa waiver country (such as the UK). But so there are no issues and no lines are crossed, when they are in the US, they shouldn't be compensated (paid their hourly rate, for example) although their expenses can be covered.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#319

Post by proberts »

victorhn wrote: post #188

I am currently working on a TN2 visa (Mexican citizen), my company wants to sponsor me my H1B and then, if i got it, sponsor my GC. I heard that there is a route where you can go from TN2 visa directly to GC, but that the process is risky if not handled carefully. What is your view on this?

There's no issue with moving from a TN to a green card; the process just needs to be managed carefully and all this really means in the end is coordinating the timing of the filing after deciding on the green card path (that is, whether through USCIS or a US Consulate).

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#320

Post by proberts »

nsonha wrote: post #316
proberts wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work all the time in my private practice and really don't do much charitable work or work for the community so this is a small way of doing something. As a firm, we're also starting to do some pro bono asylum work but really not enough yet.

Is it required by the law that you do some percentage of pro bono?

It isn't but it probably should be. We just don't do enough.
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